Diet Smith
The owner and founder of Smith Industries, Diet Smith (first appearance Jan.2, 1946) was a health-conscious technological genius who was the provider of the greatest inventions that were contributed to law enforcement. He was also personal friend of Dick Tracy and his comrades. When first introduced in the comic strip, he was a suspect in the shooting of his business partner who was killed for their top secret creation, the 2-Way Wrist Radio, which was found by Smith's employee, fugitive B.O. Plenty in the snow. Smith was arrested for not cooperating with the investigation and worked his company from behind bars. When Tracy brought B.O. in for questioning and for his outstanding crimes involving Breathless Mahoney, Tracy examined the wrist radio personally and experimenting with it to unlock its secrets. Smith gave up on his diet and went into a frenzy of eating after being upset over the death of his partner. Smith was cleared of all charges and was angered at his invention being on Tracy's wrist saying that it was still in the research stage. It turned out that disgruntled worker Irma, who stole the invention of the wrist radio from her blind son Brilliant was scheming against Smith out of revenge and lust for money. She stole the plans and all available wrist radios after turning on another Smith invention (the Atom Light) in Diet and Tracy's face. After her husband (who was sent by Irma) was killed following an attempt to steal a shipment of lithium in order to build a thousand wrist radios, she angrily went into Smith's home and shot him twice in the bathtub and then shot herself in the head. Brilliant's parents were both dead and was brought to Diet Smith's hospital bed with a gun, blaming him for their deaths shot at the bed four times. Tracy had brought Brilliant to an empty bed, knowing that he was too good a boy to kill anyone, managed to get it out of his system. Diet then invited Brilliant to work with him at Smith Industries and offered the boy friendship. Diet recovered from his injuries. When mobster Big Frost got wind of Smith Industries' Teleguard Camera, he posed as a police chief to guard Brilliant and managed to fool Chief Brandon. Frost killed Brilliant in cold blood, destroying the plans for the camera along with him. Smith was saddened when Brilliant was laid to rest, and he revealed to Tracy that he and Irma were married once and that Brilliant was actually his son. When Tracy's daughter Bonnie Braids was kidnapped by Crewy Lou Brown, Diet helped personally with the investigation with his fleet of helicopters. A vistor from the Moon landed on Earth and was disrupting electronics, the young girl Moon Maid stowed away on Diet Smith's magnetic vessel, the Space Coupe, during its final sweep around the moon. When Smith phoned Tracy to inform him ofthe discovery, Tracy fainted. Moon Maid jammed radio, radar and television signals and was shown to have unearthly powers, Smith had no choice but to arrange to have her sent back to the moon. First he and Tracy went to Washington DC to demonstrate her powers. Little did Diet and Tracy know, Junior and Moon Maid had fallen in love and both of them left on the space coupe to the moon. Tracy blew up at Diet for letting that happen. Tracy grew depressed to the point where he was contemplating quitting the force, just as Smith introduced the Wrist TV to Tracy. Junior and Moon Maid returned to Earth with new technology including the space car and the laser camera, and they were both wed on earth. Tracy and Smith both went to the moon and met Moon Maid's father the Moon Governer. Smith had a hand in initiating the strip's moon period. For a few years both Smith's technology and Moon technology aided Tracy and the police in their endless pursuit against crime. In 1978, Moon Maid was killed in a car bomb meant for Tracy after Big Boy announced an open contract against Tracy. This event caused the Moon Governer to give Diet the message that all ties would forever be severed between them and Earth and Diet told this to Tracy personally at Moon Maid's funeral. After Tess had revealed to Tracy that she was pregnant, Smith paid the Tracys a visit at Vitamin Flintheart's estate. It was Diet's mention of recent computer-based crimes that began Tracy's involvement with the Computer Killer case. Diet expressed his happiness for his friend's impending new baby, but secretly was hurting inside from the loss of his own family. A genetics expert named Dr. Zy Ghote claimed to have cloned Mumbles and was shown on TV at the same time Tracy and Smith were on the show. This led Smith to deal with Ghote to have himself cloned so he could fill his yearning for an heir after losing his son Brilliant. Tracy knew that this wasn't a clone of Mumbles and that Ghote was a fraud, but even after this was revealed to Smith, he still agreed to fund Ghote's research, but his and Mumbles' arrest made this impossible and put a strain on his and Tracy's friendship. The schism was so significant that Diet considered moving his company's base of operations to the west coast. His plan was delayed when he and Tracy were abducted by Diet's former Chief of Security, Bernard Breakdown. Tracy and Diet were soon freed, and the incident made Diet realize that he had been foolish. Diet and Tracy reconciled. When Diet Smith made a breakthrough with fusion energy, he was given coaching by his agent P.R. Blitz in order to get this idea of fusion to dispel the people's doubts and confusion of Fusion with Fission and arranged a nationwide whistle-stop tour on the world's first fusion-powered train (which ran on a thimbleful of water). At the same time, Tracy had gotten excessive mail in response to his fiftieth birthday and received a letter from an "old friend" saying that they were going to kill Diet Smtih and humiliate Tracy. Diet took precautions by making Tracy his chief of security on the tour and reluctantly wore soft-body armor. This in turn allowed Tracy to investigate a few of his old foes nationwide while Sam Catchem, Lee Ebony and Johnny Adonis investigated close to home. Diet and Tracy went to Los Angeles, Houston, and some other famous cities and checked on Pear Shape (now slim), Coffyhead (who was a legitimate but bitter coffeeshop owner), Influence (who was reformed and helping the Houston PD and had his own practice), and Mousey (whose talents with animals got her a job at a mall pet shop and eventually made her co-owner). None of thom seemed to bear a grudge against Tracy. Meanwhile Sam, Johnny, and Lee investigated recently released Measles Enog, Wormy and Dewdrop who were scheming to swipe an armored money truck. Another likely suspect was Blowtop Jones, who was living in the lap of luxury after being released on money he supposedly inherited from his neice Angeltop Jones. After Dr. Will Carver was found murdered in an alley, Sam suspected that it was the work of one of Tracy's "old friends" and questioned Blowtop. Blowtop revealed that his neice was alive and indeed had gone to Carver for plastic surgery and that she killed him. It was revealed that Angeltop and her boyfriend The Brow's Son kidnapped Lizz and made the threat to kill Smith. At Washington DC after submitting the layman's plans of fusion to President Reagan, a disguised Brow Jr. planted an explosive on Smith and was caught by Tracy, who had no evidence of him doing the deed after managing to save Diet before it exploded. This in turn prompted Angeltop to plant a bomb in the church where Junior Tracy and Sparkle Plenty were getting married. Diet Smith was also in attendance. The Brow's son freed Lizz in time to warn everyone and Angeltop was arrested. When Tracy quit the force to open a Private Eye agency to find who shot Chief Patton, Diet supplied Tracy once again with a 2-Way Wrist TV, saying that he would call on Tracy for his services when needed. After Tracy had gotten back on the force, Diet's former employee and friend B.O. Plenty opened a Dick Tracy-themed park on land he got from his no-good brother Goodin which was a toxic waste dump. After a disaster hit the park on opening night, Diet offered to help rebuild the Land O' Plenty. When Diet Smith's first Fusion Plant was about to open, Tracy had found out about a new epsionage ring consisting of female relatives of 3 of his old enemies, and was trying to identify the third member, who by Blowtop's description was a female version of Pruneface. Diet revealed that Prunella Laboche was the creator of the Prune computer. Tracy tried to convince Diet to delay the opening of the plant but Diet dismissed this and opened it as planned. At the same time, Angeltop, Quiver Trembly and Prunella held the plant for ransom with Xylon, making everyone think it was a nuclear weapon. They also held one of Smith's employees hostage. The three had given Smith a deadline of two hours to transfer a large sum of money to a numbered swiss account. Angeltop made a verbal slip and gave Tracy a vital clue that it wasn't a nuclear weapon and that Xylon would break down after two hours into harmless chemicals. Quiver and Prunella were taken into FBI custody, but Angeltop blew herself up with dynamite. Smith had introduced the two way wrist computer to Tracy and Sam in 1986 and it came in handy when the police were dealing with Putty Puss (who was another underworld client of Dr. Will Carver). Putty Puss (real name Harley Niav) later impersonated Diet, who was a candidate for president at the time. Putty Puss took Diet's place at a press conference. Putty Puss proceeded to make several inflammatory and controversial statements disguised as Smith at the behest of Smith's political rival Franklin Strong. Putty Puss' deception was revealed and he was arrested soon after, but Diet was not elected president. To this day, Smith remains a loyal compatriot and friend to Tracy and supplier of crime prevention technology. TRIVIA: *Diet's name comes his frequent attempts at dieting and healtier living. As a result, he is often depicted at widely varying weights and sizes (sometimes heavyset, other times slim). *In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Diet had a butler named "Jarvis". This is the same name as the butler for Marvel Comics' team of costumed heroes The Avengers. Known Relatives: *Irma (ex-wife; deceased) *Brilliant (son; deceased) Inventions: *Atom Light *2 way wrist Radio (1946) *2 way wrist TV (1964) *2 way wrist Computer (1986) *Wrist Geenee *Wrist Wizard *Voice-o-graf *Space Coupe *Mind reading device (2007) *Battery powered TV camera with self-light *Fusion Power